1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling system and more particularly to a direct flow impingement cooling system for electronic components mounted in panels in an equipment enclosure or cabinet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of equipment for telephone, cable television, wireless applications and the like are placed out-of-doors in equipment enclosures which generally are free standing cabinets that are mounted to a concrete pad. As electronic components for this equipment have become more sophisticated and powerful, they have also generated more heat. Thus, thermal management for equipment cabinets have become increasingly important. Further, heat dissipation requirements vary greatly from one type of component to another.
Generally, the cabinets include an upper sealed chamber for most components, a lower battery chamber and end chambers. Heat management within the sealed chamber is handled by a heat exchanger or an air conditioning unit. However, in the end chambers there typically is no heat management device other than vents to the ambient air. Hence, components that are placed in the end chambers are generally heat insensitive. Nevertheless, supplemental cooling systems have been developed and used in end chambers when and where they are needed. For example, fan units such as the Marconi AIRACK brand fan assembly have been used for auxiliary cooling. The AIRACK fan assembly can be located anywhere within the end chamber racks containing electronic components so as to be adjacent to those components that have specific cooling needs.
Other mechanisms for cooling heat generating electronic components include small fans directly attached to heat sinks which are in turn attached to the heat generating electronic component such as a Pentium brand processor. Also, journal articles have been published dealing with equipment to achieve high convective heat transfer rates. For example, an article entitled "Experimental Optimization Of Confined Air Jet Impingement On A Pin Fin Heat Sink" was published in IEEE Transactions On Components And Packaging Technology, Volume 22, No. 3, at page 399 dated September 1999. Another article entitled "A Heat Sink Performance Study Considering Material, Geometry, Nozzle Placement, And Reynolds Number With Air Impingement" appeared in Transactions Of The ASME, Volume 121, at page 156, dated September 1999.
As more powerful electronic components are developed and put into use, a continuing need has developed for systems to cool these devices to ensure that they function properly and at more optimum levels.